Video Analysis by Jonathan Janson
Jay Park’s music video “V” was released on September 10th, 2018. The song is about Jay Park trying to impress women from all over the world by calling them on his cell phone with help of the translators, which can be seen in his music video. “V” is a R&B/Soul track, which is primarily sang in Korean with several English verses throughout the song. The chorus is extremely catchy and easy to remember allowing his audience to sing along. In addition, the beat used in “V” is trendy and mainstream in the West making it a good song to dance to (Jin and Ryoo 2012: 117). The music video is also visually engaging and unique with its bright colors and CGI effects, which attracts a lot of young audiences who are the main consumers in the music industry. In this essay, I’ll be discussing how Jay Park provides diversity, male gaze, and meaningful lyrics in “V”, which makes him stands out from other K-pop artists.
Jay Park is known for providing diversity in his music videos by dancing with woman from different ethnic backgrounds. In “V”, Jay Park includes women of all ethnicity (Asian, White, Black, and Latino) in one music video, which hasn’t been done before in K-pop. In addition, Jay Park is showing personal interest to each women in “V” by trying to impress them, which shows that he finds women from all over the world attractive and does not treat them as a sexual object (Saeji 2016: 263). This makes fans from around the world appreciate Jay Park because he shows equal love and respect to each culture. By having multiple foreigners in “V”, Jay park has strived for a cosmopolitan music video, which shows his authenticity and individualism as an artist (Saeji 2016: 262).
Jay Park is also known for his male gaze in his music videos such as “MOMMAE”, “Me Like Yuh”, “My Last” and many more. What makes “V” different from his other male gaze music videos is his focus on the beauty of women rather than sexually objectifying them. However, there are still small snippets where the camera would flaunt the women’s legs or butt because that’s what men like to see (Epstein and Joo 2012: 3). By having a diverse group of females in “V”, it allows all male audiences to experience a male gaze because some individuals have a preference for women of their own background. This shows Jay Park’s uniqueness and creativity as an artist because he’s trying to convey that male gaze doesn’t always have to primarily focus on a women’s leg, butt, or cleavage, but the overall beauty of women.
The song “V” also has a beautiful meaning behind the lyrics, which goes hand in hand with the music video. In the last part of the song, Jay Park mentions “Trump는 오지 말래 (fuck off)” and “여긴 이민자 환영해 (welcome)”, which translates to “Trump says don’t come” and “Immigrants welcome here” (based on the subtitles on the music video). These two lines show Jay Park’s support for unification and to disregard Donald Trump’s attempt of separating individuals based off their background. Despite the lyrics being primarily in Korean with a few English verses, the meaning of the song is what connects fans around the world because they can relate with the message, which makes “V” special.
In conclusion, “V” has shown Jay Park’s ability to provide diversity into his music videos, a new way of seeing male gaze, and meaningful lyrics unlike other K-pop artists. From “V”, we can see Jay Parks appreciation and respect for women of all backgrounds by including them in his music video and not sexually objectifying them. To support this statement, Jay Park’s lyrics also advocates for unification by dissing Donald Trump. This shows that Jay Park isn’t afraid of expressing himself, which isn’t common in the K-pop music industry (Maliangkay 2014: 296).
Bibliography
Epstein, Stephen, and Rachel M. Joo. “Multiple Exposures: Korean Bodies and the Transnational Imagination.” The-Asia-Pacific-Journal 10, no.33 (2012): 1-24.
Jin, Dal-Yong, and Woongjae Ryoo. “Critical Interpretation of Hybrid K-Pop: The Global-Local Paradigm of English Mixing in Lyrics.” Popular Music and Society 37, no.2 (2014): 113-131.
Maliangkay, Roald. “The Popularity of Individualism: The Seo Taiji Phenomenon in the 1990s.” In The Korean Popular Culture Reader, edited by Kyung Hyun Kim and Youngmin Choe. 296-313. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.
Park, Jay. “박재범 Jay Park – ‘V’ (Official MV) [ENG, CHN].” YouTube Video, 4:03, Posted September 10, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxF7fmt3Ems.
Saeji, Cedarbough T. “Cosmopolitan Strivings and Racialisation: The Foreign Dancing Body in Korean Popular Music Videos’.” In Korean Screen Cultures: Interrogating Cinema, TV, Music and Online Games, edited by Andrew David Jackson and Colette Balmain. 257-292. Oxford, UK: Peter Lang, 2016.
“V.” Genius. https://genius.com/Jay-park-v-lyrics (accessed 12/5/18).